It has been almost six weeks to the day since I crashed at 65kmph and broke my collar bone, so I signed up for the Warburton Road Race, run on Sunday 24th March.
It was a 98 kilometres loop from Wesburn out to Noojee and back with a repeat climb over Nayook and Neerim in Victoria.
I had almost no form going into the race and certainly no race form, as I had only been back riding for just on two weeks.
My goal was to get in the hurt box, dig myself into a little hole, stay there for three to four hours and suffer for 98 kilometres in the hope the race would help build some form.
My ultimate goal is the Tour of South West in late April down in Warrnambool, which is a two day event with a road race, individual time trial and criterium.
The Warburton course is extremely tough. It is rolling terrain at 5-8% and the repeat climb kicks up to around 13%.
The roads are ‘dead’ and due to heavy trucks and recent heavy rainfall there are potholes big enough to crack a 404.
On the way out I ‘bumped’ into a few of the guys I see racing in similar grades at Crits. The general comment was twofold:
1. How is the shoulder and 2. Geez you are a sucker for punishment.
The weather was blue sky with scattered cloud and thankfully no rain. However, there was a very strong wind blowing us on the way out, which is great and all but riding some 45 kilometres back into it was hard work.
After getting to the top of the 14% repeat you always hope for a bit of relief but the ridge line heading down to Noojee is extremely exposed and you had to chomp on the pedals for a further two kilometres as the head/crosswind cut you to pieces.
I came last in C grade (a few did not finish). I couldn’t care less about my placing. This was all about pushing the zones and trying to get back some form.
I hammered the last 10 kilometres with a sustained tempo at 40-45kmph. I was right in the box with my heart rate (HR) running at 90-93%. It felt great to get up some pace and be able to hold it after suffering for several hours.
Just about everything that could go wrong in a race did – I snapped a rear spoke, my Garmin cut out so I lost wattage and HR for the last 45kilometres and I also dropped my sunnies on a descent, so I lost several minutes getting them back.
All in all it was a day I am thankful I am past but when I got off the bike I was thankful I had finished. I had plenty of pace on the flats and false flats but no sustained pace or power on the climbs (I am not a climber).
Form is a very hard thing to obtain and can be lost very quickly. There is also no substitute for race kilometres either. The levels you have to get to to be able to put yourself in a position to sneak away (and stay away) or ride guys off your wheel takes a lot of base and form.
It is also critical to target the races or events you want to do well in and then train and race to build up to them. Summer in Melbourne is spent racing crits, so most of the guys hammering the crits don’t spend much time climbing as it taxes the legs too much.
It was clearly evident that if you want to do well racing in places like Warburton you need to be spending some time training out that way as well.
Switching to the big guns, Peter Sagan’s solo attack with four kilometres to go showcases exactly how good his form is. I tipped him to take out a classic.
His form in the classics last year was exceptional and consistent, with him placing top 10 across the board. He has shown that same consistency this year with second in Milan-San Remo and The E3 Harelbeke (Fabian Cancellara got first).
Tom Boonen crashed in the race – unsure how serious it is, hopefully it is minor, as the prospect of watching Boonen, Sagan and Cancellara line-up for Paris-Roubaix is mouth-watering.
Reports are Boonen will skip the Tour of Flanders, which he has won three times.
The classics are, for me, the most exciting racing in the world. There is no margin for error or an unfortunate mishap in a one day race.
This year the spring classics have been more like arctic winter classics. The riders have been faced with some very tough conditions and Sagan is showing he is a true hard man.
Based on his current form I expect him to take out Flanders and quite possibly Paris-Roubaix. I will never write Boonen off though.
Until next time, clip in.
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